College Football Playoffs and Bowl Predictions

The college football regular season has come to an end, and what a year it has been; USC getting destroyed by Utah not once but twice, Tennessee actually being good for the first time in most of our lifetimes, and TCU somehow making the playoffs. Most surprising of all is Notre Dame, Clemson, and Alabama all missing out on the playoffs and instead getting a bowl game, it’s pretty safe to say none of them want any part of it. It has been a great year for college football but that doesn’t mean that what should be the best games in college football will actually live up to the hype. While the playoffs seemed like locks, the bigger question for the New Year’s Six Bowl Games is, which teams will actually care about playing their thirteenth or fourteenth games of the season and how many star players will stick around for what can be summed up as a meaningless game. Use this also as a disclaimer that these games can be semi unpredictable so don’t put money on these predictions.  

USC What Happened!!

The college football committee really showed how little they cared about football in the west by giving USC the honor of facing Tulane in the Cotton Bowl. The fall of USC is somewhat laughable as the team went from being in the top four to playing against a Green Wave team that was barely scraping the Top 25 the rest of the season. Some of the better matchups that could have possibly featured USC include Florida State, LSU, South Carolina, or best of all, Texas. Instead the College Football Committee decided to go the other route and drew Tulane out of a hat, figuring that if some school had to get stuck with a small,  semi-irrelevant college football team like Tulane, USC might as well be it. I’m just going out on a limb and saying that USC will win this game purely based on the fact that the person reading this can’t name a player on Tulane and neither can the person writing this. 

The Crimson Question 

The school that probably cares the least about playing in a non-title game is Alabama, as this is only the second time that Nick Saban has failed to lead the Tide to the playoffs. It has been an all around disappointing season for Alabama, but they still managed to have a better record than Kansas State who has had their best year in decades. Kansas State is a very fun team to watch; they have a balanced offense led by sensational running back Deuce Vaughn and breakout quarterback Will Howard. This paired with the fact that Bryce Young, Will Anderson, Brian Branch, and Jaymir Gibbs (really anyone else that’s a projected first or second round picks) are all question marks as to whether they will risk it to play. One thing is clear, the Alabama team we saw throughout the year will look very different against Kansas State and there will be some unfamiliar faces for the Crimson Tide. On the other hand, Kansas State doesn’t have the same kind of talent so all of their starters will be playing to improve their draft stock and get some exposure. I think Kansas State is due to beat a less than motivated Alabama team. 

The Battle of the Orange teams in the Orange Bowl

The Clemson vs Tennessee game in the Orange Bowl will be one of the most interesting games to watch. Tennessee has had a fantastic year in which they beat Alabama for the first time since Nick Saban has become head coach. With that being said, Tennessee lost their quarterback Hendon Hooker, a Heisman contender, to a torn ACL. The quarterback situation could end up being up in the air as well as the defense for the Volunteers, which was a liability all season. Dabo Swinney for Clemson showed why he is one of the best coaches in the game by doubling down on quarterback DJ Uiagalelei despite some dreadful performances including being benched in multiple games. Now with Uiagalelei in the transfer portal, Clemson will turn to the freshman and former best quarterback in the recruiting class, Cade Klubnik. Clemson has a talented enough roster to make the college football playoffs, their quarterback was who held them back all year. With Klubnik leading the offense, Clemson will definitely have the clear advantage against a lacking Tennessee team. 

The Nittany Frauds

The Rose Bowl features criminally underrated Utah, whose three losses came on the road to Florida, on the road to UCLA, and on the road to Oregon. Utah also has beaten USC twice, Oregon State, and won the Pac-12. Penn State on the other hand has quality wins that feature Purdue, Maryland, and Minnesota and have been beaten handly by both Ohio State and Michigan. For those who might not be aware, let’s just say that Purdue, Maryland, and Minnesota won’t exactly be playing in any bigtime bowl games this year. Penn State is not a very good team that has snuck by on a very easy schedule, while Utah has played a tough schedule and has won some big games. It’s pretty clear that Utah is the better team who will win the game. 

Who are the Horned Frogs?

Who would have thought at the beginning of the year that TCU would be playing in the college football playoffs. Heartland College Sports had TCU ranked at eight in the Big 12 at the beginning of the year. For some context there are ten teams in the Big 12 and number ten was Kansas who went 6-6 and Baylor was projected to finish first but finished sixth in the conference. Shows you how much Heartland College Sports knows considering they are strictly focused on the Big 12, I digress. Anyway, TCU in the last eight games TCU has won, seven of them have been by ten points or less. TCU also lost the Big 12 championship to Kansas State and somehow didn’t drop a single spot in the rankings. I don’t think TCU deserves to be in the college football playoffs and any other year they wouldn’t have so I don’t expect this to be much of a game and for Michigan, a very good team, to win convincingly.

Back-to-back Bulldogs?

Ohio State also lucked their way into the playoffs, but their path is even more egregious than TCU since Ohio State didn’t even play in their conference championship. Ohio State is also without their star receiver at the start of the year Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Ohio State has a great pairing of CJ Stroud at quarterback and Marvin Harrison as well as Emeka Egbuka as wide receivers, but to put it plainly, they just aren’t as good of a team as Georgia. They might score some points, but in the end, Georgia will win this game. 

Championship 

In my predicted championship, Georgia will face Michigan. Michigan and Georgia are both clearly the best two teams in college football so this game has the potential to be very interesting. Michigan will be without their Heisman-level running-back Blake Corum, who tore his ACL against Ohio State. Michigan has their quarterback Jake McCarthy, but I don’t think it will be enough to conquer the formidable Georgia defense. Georgia is a very well rounded team that has an incredible defense, led by Jalen Carter and when the defense struggles, the offense led by a 25 year old, how is he still in college, Stetson Bennet, who is a Heisman finalist. Not to mention that Georgia has the best tight end in college football in Brock Bowers, as well as another great tight end in Darnell Washington. Georgia will win back-to-back college football championships because of their shutdown defense and high scoring offense.